Capital punishment is unjustified
By Sarah Rackley
Student Columnist

> February 1, 2001

We live in one of the few nations which permits capital punishment. We go to school in one of 31 states that executes its citizens. Today 237 inmates on North Carolina’s death row await death by lethal injection. “Who are these inmates?” you might ask. The majority are racial minorities, the majority are poor, some are innocent, and some are mentally retarded.

Capital punishment is a shameful stain on the United States’ human rights record. According to Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “The increasing use of the death penalty in the United States … is a matter of serious concern and runs counter to the international community’s expressed desire for the abolition of the death penalty.” Commenting on our recent election, Raymond Forni, the speaker of the French Parliament said, “I cannot believe that the victory you hope for, to lead the largest democracy on earth, should be paid for with the blood of your fellow countrymen.” With the inauguration of our new president our nation is likely to become even more deeply complicit in this barbaric practice.

As governor of Texas, George W. Bush signed death warrants for 152 executions. With the help of President Clinton’s 1994 crime bill that added 58 crimes to the list of those federal crimes punishable by death, Bush will have more than ample opportunity to revive the practice of federal executions that has been dead for 37 years.

It almost seems as though our new president takes pleasure in utilizing the death penalty. I think we all remember the grin that Bush couldn’t hold back during the second Presidential Debate as he spoke of using he death penalty. “Guess what’s going to happen to these men?” he said, referring to the men who murdered James Byrd, “They’re going to be put to death.” He beamed with pride. Showing a particular disregard for respect for human life, Bush stooped to the level of mocking Karla Faye Tucker as she awaited execution on Texas’ death row. In an interview with Time magazine, Bush imitated Tucker, whimpering with his lips pursed in mock desperation, “Please, don’t kill me.”

The “get tough” attitude of both parties is reprehensible given the injustice of the death penalty. The application of the death penalty is an atrocity in our country, disproportionately targeting minorities and the poor. The reason the death penalty was abolished for four years in the Uited States by the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia was due to the racial disparities of capital punishment. However, though African Americans make up 12 percent of the United States population today, they make up 43 percent of prisoners on death row. Racial minorities as a whole make up 75 percent of those on death row. Crimes against whites are also more likely to be prosecuted and punished. The murder of a white person is 4.3 times more likely to be punished with the death penalty than the murder of an African American. North Carolina has the shameful distinction of having the highest percentage of racial minorities on death row of any state. Seventy-six percent of all people executed in North Carolina are African American.

Because our judicial system often does not provide adequate legal representation to the poor, a disproportionate number of those on death row are poor. Over 90 percent of defendants charged with capital crimes cannot afford an attorney and must rely on inexperienced, underpaid, and over-worked court-appointed defenders. In Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, court-appointed attorneys are paid a flat fee of $1,000, or about $5 per hour for their defense. An example of an affluent person being put to death is difficult to find. In actuality, being wealthy may be the best defense to avoid capital punishment.

As a result of its flawed application, the innocent can be condemned to death. Many who have spent years on death row despite their innocence have later been freed. In fact, one in seven on death row have been freed after being fully exonerated. Of the 79 people who have been freed from death row, two are North Carolinians. It is abominable that we are sending innocent people to their deaths.

Some argue that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime and thus should be used. However, an FBI study shows that states that do not practice the death penalty actually have a lower average murder rate than those that use the death penalty. Others favor the use of the death penalty because they imagine it is less expensive to put someone to death rather than to imprison them for the rest of their lives. However, capital punishment cases entail much higher trial expenses than ordinary murder trials. In Texas, the average cost for each use of the death penalty $2.3 million, or about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. In Florida, the average cost of each execution is $3.2 million. Capital punishment is not an effective way to fight crime.

Finally, though it is clear that the death penalty should be ended because it is unjust, ineffective in reducing crime and extremely expensive, one must also consider the most fundamental reason for ending capital punishment. A basic respect of life, held by people of good will worldwide tells us that we do not “play God” and kill our fellow man or woman. It’s as simple as that. State sanctioned murder is not acceptable in any form, including as punishment for a heinous crime. As people of good will we should be outraged by the use of capital punishment in our nation and we should join with numerous lawyers, judges, people of faith and members of the international community to raise our voices in demand of an end to this injustice.